1st set includes Herford, Duesseldorf and Munich gigs.
2nd set includes Hamburg and Brussels.
3rd set includes all remaining USA and UK gigs. For some USA gigs an
encore of Jolene and Vision Thing was planned but never played; it was
finally performed in the second
London show.

Many concerts slightly differed from the "standard" sets. Most notably,
later shows tended to skip Train/Detonation Boulevard and War on Drugs.

An average show had 19-20 songs in it, six of them unreleased, two more
only available on deleted 80s singles -- all in all, only half songs were
familiar to audience without Sisters bootlegs education. Most of these
were concentrated in second half of the gig -- more reserved audiences
only started showing signs of life during Dominion/Mother Russia and
continued it from there.

Other songs

Several songs are not mentioned in the set above. These are
Kiss the Carpet (performed 3 times), Body Electric
(3), Alice (1), Under the Gun (1) and Sister Ray (1).

Kiss the Carpet opened shows three times, moving First and Last and
Always to encores where it replaced Something Fast. Two last performances
were doubles in the same city -- its inclusion slightly variated second
performances.

Under the Gun was stopped being played in the middle of the previous
Distance Over Time tour. It was performed early
in this tour, probably to test if it still fits in the setlist. Apparently,
it didn't, and thus abandoned Sisters gigs forever.

The three Body Electrics were performed in late tour gigs (all these had
Train/Detonation Boulevard excluded), Alice was a
one-off to spice the second San
Francisco show, and Sister Ray was used as a thank-you to great
audience in Brussels.

New songs

Compared to the previous Distance Over Time tour
(1997), three songs were missing -- Burn, Blood Money, and Confide in Me,
all three taken off the setlist midway through the tour.

They were replaced by three new songs: Romeo Down, (We are the Same)
Suzanne and Will I Dream?

Glasperlenspiel has
analysis of song's lyrics
in its site, complete with Eldritch quotes on it. While we're on it, the
peanuts you have to pay for both issues of the print zine (you have to
only cover the postage) are well worth it; check out the details in the
GPS site. If you speak German, you
should consider purchasing
Head and Star
-- it's also cheap, and it's also good.

This is the only song in The Sisters of Mercy shows to feature live bass
(played by Adam).

In early 2000 Andrew Eldritch indicated this song as the best one of all
currently available. Many fans agree. Mike Varjak proved he's a worthy
addition to the team. The song has a dreamy atmosphere to it, and
the verse reminds the hypnotizing ending of Heartland. Guitar work on this
one is unusual and great.

1998/01/26 Brussels had 22 songs --
that's more than any other show in 1996-2000 period. It also includes the
mammoth Sister Ray, the second since its revamp in 1997's
Rendsburg gig and only one
this tour. Missing are Kiss the Carpet, Body Electric, Alice and
Under the Gun -- all played very rarely. If you find this gig on
tape/cd/video, you have a definite taste of what the tour looked like.
The four gigs preceding this (Herford,
Duesseldorf,
Munich and
Hamburg; they are classified as "1st set" and "2nd set" at
the top of this page) have very similar setlists; only Sister Ray and
(in the first two) Will I Dream? are missing.

1998/02/06 San Francisco opened
with Kiss the Carpet (with First and Last and Always exiled to encores),
and has one of few Body Electric performances and one-off Alice; also,
it has the only USA performance of Vision Thing. It misses Something
Fast (excluded from all gigs with Kiss the Carpet), Train/Detonation
Boulevard (excluded from all gigs with Body Electric) and Temple of Love.
The second London show is very similar
to this one -- some songs changed places, and absence of Alice is
compensated by Jolene.

1998/01/16 Vienna has one and only
this tour -- and last ever -- Under the Gun. It also opened with Kiss the
Carpet and has nonstandard setlist, mostly because there was no standard
setlist then. Four more early gigs have mess for setlist --
Erlangen,
Chemnitz,
Berlin and
Prague; the later only has 16 songs,
making it shortest gig in 1997-1999 period.